Open Radar

 
Summary:
Automatic Termination quits apps in the background that have no windows open and are not doing work. However, users who often switch between many apps can get bitten by this if they only intend to switch away from an application temporarily and then switch right back, or if they accidentally close a window and then click away. Consequently, there should be an option to keep auto-terminated apps in the Dock (and the Cmd-Tab switcher) in order to maintain the illusion that they haven't been quit, merely paused (ready to be "Resumed"). 

This problem was discussed by Matt Neuberg on TidBITS: http://tidbits.com/article/12398


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open a document in TextEdit.
2. Make a change, save it.
3. Close the document.
4. Switch to Safari to look something up.
5. Switch back to TextEdit, using Cmd-Tab (or the Dock), and open a new document.


Expected Results:
TextEdit is there.


Actual Results:
TextEdit has been quit. It's not in my Dock, so I have to go to the Applications folder / Spotlight / Quicksilver to get it open again.


Regression:
N/A


Notes:
I can understand why the decision was made the way it is: some people don't ever quit applications, only close all the windows. But as someone who /does/ understand and prefer the "application" metaphor over the "document" metaphor, this has been very annoying. (There's no Option-Tab "document switcher" a la Windows, and on iOS applications /don't/ disappear when they are auto-terminated.) Making this a preference (still off by default) would be a great way to make things easier for people like me.

Again, it's not a preference that turns Auto Termination off, just one that says that Auto-Terminated apps still show up in the Dock and Cmd-Tab switcher. (I realize that's not necessary /easy/, but...)

Something like this would make rdar://problem/10035314 a lot less annoying.

It'd be nice to have a change in either the status indicator (the little light under the app) or the app icon itself to note that the app has been auto-terminated. (I know, the status indicator is kinda deprecated, but still.)